Gamescom 2023: Black Myth: Wukong Gameplay Impressions

There have been a lot of Souls-like games released recently, maybe too many. Many of them don’t come close to the quality of FromSoftware’s originals, but some games definitely try. Last year at Gamescom, Lies of P, which is coming in a few weeks, got a lot of attention, and this year it’s Black Myth: Wukong. The game is from Chinese studio Game Science and has been in development for a few years now. We’ve seen a few trailers in that time, but it’s only now that we’ve seen a full playable demo. I spent a total of 45 minutes with the game, the demo was split into four locations, and I managed to complete three.

Firstly, the game looks very beautiful. The developers have long boasted about the use of Unreal Engine 5 or ray tracing, and you can really tell that in terms of detail and lighting, you have something to look forward to. Likewise, the stylization based on Chinese mythology is beautiful and very unique. The PC version that I tried out ran smoothly, although there were some lags.

The controls are standard and pleasant to the soul. Of course, you have dodge, fast and slow attack, but it also depends on which combat stance you choose: each of them is suitable for something different. Of course, there is a limited ability to heal or special abilities that have a certain recovery time, but they will help you a lot in battle. For example, the ability to immobilize the enemy for a few seconds was very useful. In addition to relatively classic abilities, there is also a “super ability” when the monkey king changes his form for a certain time and his attacks become stronger.

There are also “bonfires”, which, however, in Wukong have the form of some small temples. They serve as a checkpoint, a chance to rest (which resets your lives and enemies), but at the same time you can exchange the already mentioned abilities here, since the slots are limited.

Unfortunately, apart from the fourth level, which I didn’t have time to complete, I didn’t have a chance to see some of the longer locations. In any case, from what I saw, they seem very diverse. I saw a cave, snowy mountains, a deserted temple, and finally a more open location in the form of a cliff, where I honestly got a little lost.

There also seems to be quite a large number of enemy types, and each one is truly unique. Some are downright curious, but you will encounter, for example, the classic “walkers” with a sword. One-on-one combat is relatively easy, but as soon as there are more enemies, it becomes really difficult. More than once, it happens that an enemy jumps out at you from somewhere, and you are not expecting it at all.

The highlight of a Souls-type game is of course the boss fights, and that was the main focus of the demo. The centipede in the cave had already given me a lot of work, but that was just a preparation for what was to come. It had a relatively limited move set and wasn’t very agile. But the same can’t be said for the macaques in the winter location. The monkey fight was very dynamic and unpredictable, the macaque used melee and ranged attacks, but with the right timing of dodges and attacks, I managed to defeat it in the end. The most difficult was definitely the tiger in the sand temple, which was always dangerous and I barely managed to defeat it. Of course, it took me many tries. It was very fast and attacked unexpectedly, so perfect timing was again the key to success.

In any case, the feel of the fights themselves is great. You definitely need to be a bit tactical, and simply pressing the attack button will not get you very far. However, constantly dodging is not the answer, because you really need to recognize when the enemy is attacking and dodge at the right moment to avoid accidentally running into their attack.

The game is really difficult, but completely fair and certainly not frustrating. If you have some experience with this genre, you will get into it very quickly and I believe you will enjoy this new soul-like genre. Although there are many such projects, this is certainly one of the most promising.

Black Myth: Wukong will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2024.